Flowers
by NobleCaliber
Summary: Nell likes getting flowers and for that reason, Eric likes sending them. Oneshot collection, minor spoilers for 3X08 "Greed"
1. Condolences

So, Eric and Nell were just so adorable with their flowers thing, I couldn't not. But as I was thinking about it, I just came up with a lot of plots and so this probably gonna be a collection of oneshots.

Yeah, I should be doing homework. Except my geometry teacher wants us to write some story even though it's a math class and I really hate that guy with a fiery passion.

/|\

When she initially found them, she'd rolled her eyes. She was in an almost R word with someone she could almost call her B word.

Actually, not anymore. They'd gotten into a fight. Then he'd scared the shit out of her. He was a big guy, and she was fairly small, so when he puffed up to his full size and grabbed her arm, she'd been pretty scared out of her mind.

She'd called Eric and he's called the team, at which point Sam, who was, no question, bigger than her no longer almost B word, had scared him a good deal more than he'd scared her.

And even though he'd been given cut and dry instructions to steer clear of her, apparently he'd-

As she read the card, which she'd pulled from the large bouquet of lilies and tulips, she froze mid- inner rant and smiled.

After she'd begun working, typing out long codes as well as cracking them, Kensi spun up in her swivel chair, mischievous smile planted firmly on her face.

She plucked the card off Nell's desk and scanned it.

Nell pretended not to catch the eyebrows-raised look she got from Kensi over the slip of paper. She read the slip again and again until Nell snatched it from her hand and shoved it pointedly into her back pocket.

"_Nell Jones,_" Kensi emphasized. "You had better _spill_." They were grown women, professionals. But sometimes, it was fun to just be girls. To ignore all matters of national security, all assignments, and sit and giggle for a while.

"Nothing to spill," Nell's eyes remained stubbornly locked on her computer monitor.

"C'mon, Nell."

"Nope."

"Seriously." Kensi pulled Nell's own wheeled chair around to face hers. "You have a thing for him," Nell blushed. "And he _obviously_ has a thing for you. So why the hell not?"

"We are _not_ having this conversation," Nell attempted to turn back to her work, but her chair was stiffly held from turning around.

"Not having what conversation?" Hetty, as per usual, had pulled some of her ninja tricks and showed up behind them in a flash.

"The conversation about Nell, Eric, and their _thing_," Kensi teased.

"It's _not_ a _thing_!" Nell insisted, standing from her chair as if to prove her point.

"I see," Hetty nodded, smiling at Kensi nonetheless. "So the flowers would be from-"

The three remained silent. Kensi didn't answer because Nell could do some crazy scary things with technology and Nell was not about to prove the others' point.

"Well?" Hetty asked after a long moment.

Kensi opened her mouth to answer, but the air was split by a shrill whistle. She pointed meaningfully at Eric, who stood by the railing on the next floor instead.

Hetty hummed with something between approval and intrigue, following the other two women up the stairs.

Debriefing for the latest case was long, monotonous. But as it was brought to an end and the team filtered out of Tech Ops, Eric walked over to Nell, who'd been seated in his chair for quite a while. He looked quite calm, but having worked with him for quite some time, the saw straight through his façade and to his nervousy.

Feeling a bit awkward herself, Nell spun his chair and pushed over to the next computer, the one she worked at. Deciding it was better not to say anything, Eric grabbed her chair and pulled it over to his computer, where he settled into his work next to her, as always.

"Thanks for the flowers," Nell blurted before she could lose the nerve.

Eric smiled, but never looked away from his screen. "Anytime," and the only sound for a long time after that was the never ending clicking of their side-by-side keyboards.

As she worked, Nell thought about the card tucked safely into her pocket, reading _Sorry about the way things worked out with your almost B word, but flowers make everything better, right? –Eric_

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Your best friend, the review button, is calling for you!


	2. Birthday

Thank you guys so much you're your positive reviews! This weekend is super busy for me, but I kept getting review alert e-mail after review alert e-mail, so I decided to sit down and write another installment.

You'll have to excuse any indescrepencies, etc. as I just learned of the death of Hickstead, one of the most fabulous grand prix horses in the world, Olympic medalist, and generally fantastic horse.

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The mere _size_ of the bouquet perched on her desk caused her to smile just as big. In a large, clear vase next to her computer, a set of white roses were each just beginning to bloom.

Afraid to pick up the vase because of its size, Nell sat down to admire it instead. She didn't check who they were from because she didn't need to- she already knew.

Unfortunately, various members of the OSP staff gave her odd looks on their way in to work just minutes later. One file clerk eyed the flowers warily, a woman she'd never seen before smiled knowingly at her, and Hetty tried in vain to pretend not to notice.

"Hey, Nell. Happy birth-" Deeks abruptly brought his woods to a half at the sight of the roses on her desk. "Well, I've been shown up," he laughed, placing a large, white box on her desk nonetheless.

Seeing the way her eyes lit up at the sight of the box, he waved her towards it and stepped away, motioning for her to open it.

Nell rushed for the box, her smile having grown exponentially; she quickly lifted the lid, revealing a cake, iced in white frosting, with _Happy Birthday, Nell! s_crawled across the center in blue.

"The cake was my job," Deeks threw in as Sam strode into the mission, looking quite ridiculous while carrying the largest group of multicolored balloons that she had ever seen.

Nell smiled. There was no ongoing case and if criminals would keep to murdering civilians and not Navy or Marine personnel, then Eric's little plan for a surprise party in the office could go off without a hitch.

And for once, everything in OSP went as planned. As the quiet party fizzled out, Eric and Nell found themselves by her desk, a disposable cup in each of their hands. They stood quietly for a moment as she pretended she didn't catch the little looks and smiles he sent her way.

Only then noticing the card perched among the roses, the two almost identical in color, she gingerly removed it and, holding it in her free hand, read it over.

_Twenty six for the big two-six. "Happy birthday, Rockstar,"_ Eric read the last sentence to her over her shoulder and her face flushed from both his words and how close to her he was standing, his chin practically resting on his shoulder.

He'd already wished her a happy birthday, of course (and it absolutely had been), but when he stood so close and added his nickname for her to the end, those little butterflies invaded her stomach and she fought to keep her hair and her face from being the same color.

"Thanks," She hadn't been able to get that damn smile off her face all day, and it wasn't about to go away now.

The silence from moments before came back, but just as it was then, it was not awkward, as they both knew they sometimes made it, just quiet and comfortable, two maybe-a-little-more-than-friends at a birthday party.

She looked down at the card in her hand once more. _Happy birthday, Rockstar._

/|\

I would just like to say that when I went to look up Renée Felice Smith's age, I guessed twenty six and was spot on, according to the places I looked, I was exactly right.

Reward my powers of estimation and leave a review?


	3. First Date

So, I hit a bit of a roadblock with this one. I wanted to get them on the road to dating, as this is a progression of their relationship told through flowers. But Eric isn't at all the type to just ask her out, so I had to really think about this one.

/|\

Eric Beale is a quiet man, soft spoken. Small and shy, maybe the slightest bit socially awkward. Eric Beale also has some feelings for Nell Jones that he's never been quite sure what to do with.

Except for yesterday, when they'd cracked this code, gotten the team out of this tough situation, saved the world once again, and somehow Eric had ended up with his mouth on Nell's.

In their defense, it was all very high stress. And he was giving her one of those looks and she was looking straight back and they could probably find the equation of the rate at which they each moved towards each other until the point of intersection was reached and-

And really, who could blame them? They'd been skating circles around each other, sneaking in those little looks at each other and never doing anything about the way they felt for each other.

So when Nell came into work the next day, bewildered and confused, she was met by a small bunch of Apricot Blossoms, white with their red centers placed in a small, thin clear vase next to her mouse and keyboard.

Nell gently grabbed the crystal from the table by its rim. She brought the flowers to her nose as she trotted easily up the familiar staircase with a manila folder in one hand and the flowers in the other.

She walked tentatively into Tech Ops, where Eric was already seated and typing away. Nell dropped the file on top of his hands and he looked up at her, startled.

His face paled when he saw her, but flushed a vibrant red at the sight of the flowers in her hand.

"Ah- Um… Good morning, Nell," he stuttered, opening the folder without taking his eyes off her. She froze, a deer in headlights under his gaze.

"Morning," she returned, feet firmly planted in place, unable to move. "Listen, about yesterd-"

"Nell," he cut her off. "I… Well, I. You see-"

Not quite sure what possessed her to do so, not sure what was happening at all, Nell leaned down and kissed him again.

She pulled away unsurely and sank into her chair, placing the vase between their computer monitors.

"Pick you up at seven?" he asked shyly, hardly looking at her out the side of his glasses. She knew what he was asking and her stomach flipped a little.

She tried in vain to ease both her heart rate and breathing, but it was in vain as she nodded slowly and whispered, "_Yes_."

They both exhaled heavily, and the nervous tension in the room, which had previously been _palpable_, disappeared. "Awesome," he said, and then the only thing to be heard was the collective typing on their keyboards, with an occasional click or two thrown in for good measure.

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Continue your awesomeness and review like you guys have been?


	4. Thanks

Oh, I'm a terrible person. I haven't updated in what, three weeks now? I will try to get another up real soon.

Also, I'm trying to match flower meanings to the theme of each flower as if Eric puts a good deal of thought into each flower or boquet he gives Nell. Like last weeks, when we were facing the awkward, shy phase; apricot blossoms signify timid love.

I have a list of about fifteen different flowers with their meanings, and I'm going to try to get a new chapter out at least once a week,

Anyways.

/|\

Despite not being in the field except under special circumstances, things up in Tech Ops can still be pretty high stress.

Like when a militia group of unknown origin tried to hack the NCIS server in order to later be able to hack almost any US Government database.

Like when it fell within Eric's workload to put a stop to it immediately, but he can't do it alone.

He's never got to do that stuff alone. In fact, he's never got to do anything alone anymore because she's always there for him and that's mutual.

So when he starts to become frazzled, letting out an irritated yell without pausing the movement of his hands over his keyboard, her chair comes spinning into his peripheral .

She pulls up a page on the screen next to his and the rate of her typing begins to rival his. For a long moment, the only sound in the airy space of Tech Ops is the rapid clicking of every key available.

Whichever of them pressed whichever key, soon the firewall protecting every identity and operation of the Navy and USMC is back up and fully operational. Nell and Eric collapse back into their chairs, their hands connecting in a high five who's crack rings around the room. HE doesn't have to look at her to slap his hand against hers in celebration, but there's this new thing they also do. Of course, he has to look at her to lean over and kiss her.

There's a deep, dark pink rose between their computers the next morning.

/|\

According the site I use for the meanings of the flowers from, dark pink roses can be given as thanks.

This one's super short, but I'm working on the next one as we speak.

Even though I'm bad and I haven't updated in forever, could you leave a review?


	5. Christmas

If only there was a way for my handwritten version of this story to become text on my computer in no effort. Oh, wait, there it, and it's on my Christmas list.

Anyways, I wrote this after finishing my IPC final… Which took all of twenty minutes out of the three hours allowed. Seriously, if that's how low they set the bar at my school, we're a screwed. Plus it was pointless of me to write it out by hand because I'd never actually consult the way I'd written it before while I write it now.

So there's this one, and the next is halfway done.

But this one works more with the show's timeline than the nice imaginary timeline I've set up. That said, this takes place just after _Higher Power_.

/|\

Just after she's decided that _The Heart of Christmas_ is _the_ saddest Christmas movie ever, there's a knock at the door. She dries her tears from the scene currently playing and pauses it.

Idly wondering who's come to visit her on Christmas afternoon. She doesn't have to wait long to find out; with one last swipe over her eyes, Nell cracks the door to reveal Eric.

He starts a sing-song 'Merry Christmas" but trails off at the sight of the tear tracks on her face, when his holiday spirit turns to concern. "Hey, Nell, what's wrong?" His eyebrows net together and her reaches out for her before remembering what he holds: A large potted poinsettia and a large bag of fast food a la KFC.

"Oh, yeah," she wipes her still damp face once again, "Just a really sad Christmas movie. Come in, Eric, come in." She steps back and opens the door wide, taking the pant from his hand.

He begins to set up camp in the living room as she waters the plant and sets it on the bar around the kitchen counter, grabbing two plates, forks, and cans of coke on her way to join him on the couch.

He's cleared her coffee tables of potpourri and the latest _Better Homes and Gardens_, now filling it with green beans, corn, cole slaw, mashed potatoes, and chicken legs- about as close to Christmas dinner as fast food can get. He hogs the cole slaw, but she commandeers most of the biscuits. He quotes _Elf_ almost line for line, usually through a bite of whatever he's jam-packed into his mouth.

"So," he starts, swallowing a mouthful of fried chicken, "What exactly did you tell your parents about me?" a careful sideways glance at her accompanies his question as she seemingly mulls over what to and not to tell him.

"Well, I obviously started with how annoying you are," her voice is serious, but her striking eyes are wild with mischief. "How you steal my chair up in Tech Ops when you think I won't notice, how you _always_ have to be right, and how you show up at my doorstep out of the blue, but I feel compelled to let you in because you bring food and flowers."

"What you mean is, just the good stuff," he fires back handing her a triangular box containing a single slice of pie, which she tears open and begins eating, sending a grateful nod him way.

"If that helps you sleep at night, Eric."

Long after the pie was finished and leftovers were chilled in her refrigerator, they sat on the couch watching cheesy Christmas movies.

As much crap as she could give about it, it would ultimately be overshadowed by her gratitude. Above all, she was just glad that her partner, her best friend, had gone out of his way to make sure she didn't spend Christmas alone.

She glances between him and the poinsettia on her kitchen counter and smiles, shifting just a little closer to him as he laughs a line from a terrible Christmas movie that she's never even heard of before.

/|\

Review?


	6. Apology

Tuesday morning, there's a stem of purple hyacinths laid over her keyboard.

She stiffly ignores them after moving them to lie beside her mouse pad. She goes about running the background checks she left for this morning, pulling files and sending them to the big screen for briefing the team later.

She's pulled extensive background on almost all of their suspect's known associates, including both criminal contacts and family, when he strolls into Tech Ops, sandals slapping against his heels, and sits down in his chair next to hers.

There's a long moment of thick silence where it's just her clicking her way into people's lives and him sitting quietly and watching her out of the corner of his eye.

"I'm sorry, Nell," he finally says, turning his head ever-so-slightly to get a better look at her.

Her jaw is set in her anger with him and she plays the muscles as she contemplates what to say to him. "No, I get it- you don't trust me." She whips her swivel chair around and walks over to the largest screen in the room, arranging faces and intel around.

Her turns his chair as well to look at her, or her back really. "Of course I do! I was just double checking!" part of him knows that explaining himself might just make her even angrier, but he does it anyway because he _really_ hates it when she's mad at him.

"Double checking solid intel that there was no reason to doubt? Sounds more like second guessing to me, Eric." She doesn't break her pattern of dragging, resizing, and arranging information on the screen, doesn't even look over at him.

"I was just making sure; I didn't do it because I thought you were wrong."

"If you didn't have any doubts, then why would you need to go back and check if I'd screwed up?"

He's fighting a losing battle, only digging himself a deeper grave. He realizes that it might just be time to cut his losses. He grabs the stem of the grouping of flowers and walks over to her, waiting for her to face him.

When Nell finally turns around, her eyebrows are raised expectantly and she shakes her head slightly as if she's waiting for the next reasoning behind him checking her information.

He offers the flower to her. "I'm sorry, Nell. I shouldn't have checked your intel. You're good at your job and you know what you're doing, I don't need to keep tabs on you." He contemplates telling her it's a force of habit, that he's never had anyone up in Ops as reliable as her, but that feels like another excuse, so he leaves it out. "I'm sorry."

Her expression softens and she places her hand over his on the flowers, taking them after a moment with a small smile.

He smiles back at her and they stand there a moment, just staring at each other as they so often do, before she takes the flower between her middle and ring fingers and turns back to the board to finish arranging the data.

When she returns to their desk, where he's already typing away, she brushes her hand over his shoulder and lays the flower between them before setting back to work.

/|\

Even though I'm the worst updater in the history of ever, review?


	7. Falling

Thank you guys so much for your continued support! Your reviews make my day.

Oh my gosh, tonight's episode. He was so jealous, and she loves it. And the whole thing with them being partners and their IQs. "Plus, we're clearly the coolest people in the room." Just asdfghjkl excuse my fangirling.

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The vase arrives at her house Saturday afternoon. A dozen Carolina roses in a clouded jar, bright and perky as the teenage girl gushing to her about them and asking her to sign for them.

Nell inhales their scent and searches for a card, the little slip of paper that usually comes with a sweet little message that makes her breath catch. She loves the short, coded messages he sends her on the cards and then provides no help in solving.

There isn't one, and she considers calling him and asking where her card is, whay he meant to say with these, but leaves it for later, when he picks her up for dinner. Six month anniversary, who knew Eric wouod be the kind to keep track of those sorts of things?

She adds a little water to the vase and takes them to her room, setting them on her dresser.

When he arrives a few hours later, his jaw is on the floor by the time the door is open (God, that dress). She'd recently admitted to wanting to dress up for something, so he'd picked a restaurant where she could, but he was not expecting this.

He's openly staring at her for a long moment, until she asks, "What were the flowers for?"

He falters, stumbles over his own words for a moment. "Oh, ah, six month anniversary?"

"You sent six red roses to my desk on the actual day, Eric."

"You like getting flowers. Can't a guy just send his flower-admiring girlfriend some flowers every once in a while?"

He hopes his eyes don't betray him, for just beneath the surface he's dying to tell her that it's because part of him thinks he's falling in love with her and the other part is fairly certain that he's been in love with her for a long time already.

She smiles softly at him, the way she does when she's not totally convinced by what he's saying, but lets him slide. "I guess. Thank you, though. They're lovely, as usual."

Yeah, one way or another, he loves her.

He offers her his arm with a, "Shall we?" And she slips hers through as they walk out to his car and speed off to dinner, the notion of being in love with her never leaving his head.

Just as the thought hasn't left him alone for days, it doesn't tonight, not as he sneaks glances at her and she scolds him for taking his eyes off the road, not as she smiles at him over the candle in the center of their table, and certainly not when she agrees to dance with him, laying her head on his chest as they sway back and forth to soft music.

/|\

Review?


	8. Slumber

Wow, I'm just abiut the worst updater in the history of ever, huh? I suck. Forgive me? I think you'll like this one.

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Nell wakes to harsh, orange sunlight and a sweet smell.

When she'd fallen asleep, she'd thought she could sleep for days. She wonders briefly if she did. Without lifting her head, she reaches out to the bedside table, running her palm over the polished wood in search of her watch or cell.

Her hand finds something cyndrillical. Funny, she doesn't remember having a water bottle or glass last night, just falling into bed after a particularity long, hard op that required her and the rest of the team to sacrifice no small amount of sanity and sleep.

She opens her eyes and finds a vase of Marvel of Peru flowers. It must be late too, because they greet her with open petals.

She sees the card, but leaves it for later, unsure of her ability to so much as read the words at the moment.

Nell reaches around the vase, where her hand meets a watch. It's not hers though, it's thick and bulky where hers is thin and light.

Eric lifts his head from where it lays behind hers on the pillow. "What time's it? Breakfast?" He asks, pulling his arm from where it's tucked around her waist to fist his hand around hers on the watch.

"More like dinner. It's five PM."

He guides their hands back to the table, opening her fingers and letting the face of the watch fall back onto the wood. "Sleep 'till breakfast, then."

"Sounds good to me," she lets her head fall back to the pillow and her body be pulled closer to his has he lays his arm back over her waist and hooks one of his legs over hers.

Almost twelve hours later, their bodies refuse to continue sleeping. They fight it for a while, lying in bed and trying to sleep again. For just under an hour, they lay in silence, completely still except for Eric's fingers repeatedly sliding through Nell's short hair.

They finally decide on making themselves presentable enough to go out and find a fully functional restaurant that's open at five in the morning.

Nell sits up with a yawn, stretching her arms above her head and the out at her sides while pointing her toes down and then pulling them up. Eric rolls onto his back and streches as well.

Only when they're about to head out does she

remember the flowers. Though they've been sitting in plain sight, the combinaton of her exhaustion and hunger made her forget them.

She reaches over and plucks the card from between two of the open flowers as he straightens his glasses, eyeing her from the opposite side of the room.

She almost passes out for what it reads.

_I love you, Rockstar._

She concentrates on swallowing, then looks up at him as he crosses the room toward her.

Then he's right with her, holding her face in his hands gently, as if she might break. Even in the solitude of her (really their, she can count on one hand the number of times he slept in his own apartment this month) he whispers as islf someone is listening. "I love you, Nell."

She stands up on her toes and kisses him.

They begin to get carried away but then his stomach growls and she pulls back just enough to laugh.

"I love you too. I'm also _really _hungry, but all I really want is to sleep some more."

He loves the way she just mixes it in with other easy facts as if it's one of them, and he very much hopes that one day, it will be.

/|\

You know the drill.


End file.
